He drew a chair to the fireplace, over which hung a crucifix, and invited me to be seated, and seating himself beside me he signed to me to speak. Outside the snow fell. I began as follows:
"My father, it is ten years ago since I left your care and entered the world. I have preserved my faith, but, alas, not my purity. But it is unnecessary to remind you of my life; you know it, you my spiritual guide, the only keeper of my conscience. Moreover, I am in haste to arrive at the event which has convulsed my being. Last year my family had decided that I must marry, and I myself had willingly consented. The young girl destined for me united all the advantages of which parents are usually in search. More than that, she was pretty; she pleased me to such a degree that instead of a marriage of convenience I was about to make a marriage of affection. My offer was accepted, and we were betrothed. The happiness and peace of my life seemed a.s.sured when I received a letter from Paul d"Ervy who had returned from Constantinople and announced his arrival in Paris. He expressed a great desire to see me. I hurried to him and announced my marriage. He congratulated me heartily.
""My dear old boy," he said, "I rejoice in your happiness."
"I told him that I counted on him to be my witness and he willingly consented. The date of my wedding was fixed for May 15, and he was not obliged to return to his post until the beginning of June.
""How lucky that is," I said to him. "And you?"
""Oh, I," he replied, with a smile which expressed in turn joy and sorrow, "I--what a change! I am mad--a woman--Ary. I am either very fortunate or very unfortunate! What name can one give to a happiness gained by an evil action? I have betrayed, I have broken the heart of a good friend... I carried off--yonder--in Constantinople----"
M. Safrac interrupted me:
"My son, leave out of your narrative the faults of others and name no one."
I promised to obey, and continued as follows:
"Paul had hardly ceased speaking when a woman entered the room.
Evidently it was she; dressed in a long blue _peignoir_, she seemed to be at home. I will describe to you in one word the terrible impression she produced on me: she did not seem _natural_. I realise how vague is this expression and how inadequately it explains my meaning. But perhaps it will become more intelligible in the course of my story. But, indeed, in the expression of her golden eyes, that seemed at times to throw out sparks of light, in the curve of her enigmatical mouth, in the substance of her skin, at once brown and yet luminous, in the play of the angular and yet harmonious lines of her body, in the ethereal lightness of her footsteps, even in her bare arms, to which invisible wings seemed attached, and, finally, in her ardent and magnetic personality, I felt an indescribable something foreign to the nature of humanity; an indescribable something inferior and yet superior to the woman G.o.d has created in his formidable goodness, so that she should be our companion in this earthly exile. From the moment I saw her one feeling alone overmastered my soul and pervaded it; I felt a profound aversion towards everything that was not this woman.
"Seeing her enter, Paul frowned slightly, but changing his mind, he made an effort to smile.
""Leila, I wish to present to you my best friend."
"Leila replied:
""I know M. Ary."
"These words could not but seem strange as we had certainly never seen each other before; but the voice with which they were uttered was stranger still.
"If crystal could utter thought, so it would speak.
""My friend Ary," continued Paul, "is to be married in six weeks."
"At these words Leila looked at me and I saw distinctly that her golden eyes said "No!"
"I went away greatly disturbed, nor did my friend show the slightest desire to detain me. All that day I wandered aimlessly through the streets, my heart empty and desolate; then, towards night, finding myself in front of a florist"s shop, I remembered my _fiancee_, and went in to get her a spray of white lilac. I had hardly taken hold of the flowers when a little hand tore them out of my grasp, and I saw Leila, who turned away laughing. She wore a short grey dress and a jacket of the same colour and a small round hat. I must confess that this costume of a Parisian dressed for walking was most unbecoming to her fairy-like beauty and seemed a kind of disguise. And yet, seeing her so, I felt that I loved her with an undying love. I tried to rejoin her, but I lost her among the crowd and the carriages.
"From this time on I seemed to cease to live. I called several times at Paul"s without seeing Leila again. He always received me in a friendly manner, but he never spoke of her. We had nothing to say to each other, and I was sad when we parted. At last, one day, the footman said that his master was out. He added "Perhaps you would like to see Madame?" I replied "Yes." O, my father, what tears of blood can ever atone for this little word! I entered. I found her in the drawing-room, half reclining on a couch, in a dress as yellow as gold, under which she had drawn her little feet. I saw her--but, no, I saw nothing. My throat was suddenly parched, I could not utter a word. A fragrance of myrrh and aromatic perfumes which emanated from her seemed to intoxicate me with languor and longing, as if at once all the odours of the mystic East had penetrated my quivering nostrils. No, this was certainly not a natural woman, for nothing human seemed to emanate from her. Her face expressed no emotion, either good or bad, beyond a voluptuousness at once sensual and divine. She doubtless noticed my suffering, for she asked with a voice as clear as the ripple of a mountain brook:
""What ails you?"
"I threw myself in tears at her feet and cried, "I love you madly!""
"She opened her arms; then enfolding me with a lingering glance of her candid and voluptuous eyes:
""Why have you not told me this before?"
"Indescribable moment! I held Leila in my arms. It seemed as if we two together had been transported to Heaven and filled all its s.p.a.ces. I felt myself become the equal of G.o.d, and my breast seemed to enfold all the beauty of earth and the harmonies of nature--the stars and the flowers, the forests that sing, the rivers and the deep seas. I had enfolded the infinite in a kiss...."
At these words Monsieur Safrac, who had listened to me for some moments with growing impatience, rose, and standing before the fireplace, lifted his ca.s.sock to his knees to warm his legs and said with a severity which came near being disdain:
"You are a wretched blasphemer, and instead of despising your crimes, you only confess them because of your pride and delight in them. I will listen no more."
At these words I burst into tears and begged his forgiveness.
Recognising that my humility was sincere, he desired me to continue my confession on condition that I realised my own self-abas.e.m.e.nt.
I continued my story as follows, determined to make it as brief as possible:
"My father, I was torn by remorse when I left Leila. But, from the following day on, she came to me, and then began a life which tortured me with joy and anguish. I was jealous of Paul, whom I had betrayed, and I suffered cruelly.
"I do not believe that there is a more debasing evil than jealousy, nor one which fills the soul with more degrading thoughts. Even to console me Leila scorned to lie. Besides, her conduct was incomprehensible. I do not forget to whom I am speaking, and I shall be careful not to offend the ears of the _most_ revered of priests. I can only say that Leila seemed ignorant of the love she permitted. But she had enveloped my whole being in the poison of sensuality. I could not exist without her, and I trembled at the thought of losing her.
"Leila seemed absolutely devoid of what we call moral sense. You must not, however, think that she was either wicked or cruel. On the contrary, she was gentle and compa.s.sionate. Nor was she without intelligence, but her intelligence was not of the same nature as ours.
She said little, and she refused to reply to any questions that were asked her about her past. She was ignorant of all that we know. On the other hand, she knew many things of which we are ignorant.
"Educated in the East, she was familiar with all sorts of Hindoo and Persian legends, which she would repeat with a certain monotonous cadence and with an infinite grace. Listening to her as she described the charming dawn of the world, one would have said she had lived in the youth of creation. This I once said to her.
""It is true, I am old,"" she answered smiling.
M. Safrac, still standing in front of the fireplace, had for some time bent towards me in an att.i.tude of keen attention.
"Continue," he said.
"Often, my father, I questioned Leila about her religion. She replied that she had none, and that she had no need of one; that her mother and sisters were the daughters of G.o.d, but that they were not bound to Him by any creed. She wore a medallion about her neck filled with a little red earth which she said she had piously gathered because of her love for her mother."
Hardly had I uttered these words when M. Safrac, pale and trembling, sprang forward, and, seizing my arm, _shouted_:
"She told the truth! I know now. I know who this creature was, Ary! Your instinct did not deceive you. It was not a woman. Continue, continue, I implore."
"My father, I have nearly finished. Alas, for Leila"s love, I had broken my solemn plighted troth, I had betrayed my best friend. I had affronted G.o.d. Paul, having heard of Leila"s faithlessness, became mad with grief.
He threatened her with death, but she replied gently:
""Kill me, my friend; I long to die, but I cannot."
"For six months she gave herself to me; then one morning she said that she was about to return to Persia, and that she would never see me again. I wept, I moaned, I raved: "You have never loved me!"
""No, my friend," she replied gently. "And yet how many women who have loved you no better have denied you what you received from me! You still owe me some grat.i.tude. Farewell."
"For two days I was plunged in alternate fury and apathy! Then remembering the salvation of my soul, I hurried to you, my father. Here I am. Purify me, uplift me, strengthen my heart, for I love her still."
I ceased. M. Safrac, his hand raised to his forehead, remained lost in thought. He was the first to break the silence.
"My son, this confirms my great discovery. What you tell me will confound the vainglory of our modern sceptics. Listen to me. We live today in the midst of miracles as did the first-born of men. Listen, listen! Adam, as I have already told you, had a first wife whom the Bible does not make mention of, but of whom the Talmud speaks. Her name was Lilith. Created, not out of one of his ribs, but from this same red earth out of which he himself had been kneaded, she was not flesh of his flesh. She voluntarily separated from him. He was still living in innocence when she left him to go to those regions where long years afterwards the Persians settled, but which at this time were inhabited by the pre-Adamites, more intelligent and more beautiful than the sons of men. She therefore had no part in the transgression of our first father, and was unsullied by that original sin. Because of this she also escaped from the curse p.r.o.nounced against Eve and her descendants. She is exempt from sorrow and death; having no soul to be saved, she is incapable of virtue or vice. Whatever she does, she accomplishes neither good nor evil. The daughters that were born to her of some mysterious wedlock are immortal as she is, and free as she is both in their deeds and thoughts, seeing that they can neither gain nor lose in the sight of G.o.d. Now, my son, I recognise by indisputable signs that the creature who caused your downfall, this Leila, was a daughter of Lilith. Compose yourself to prayer. To-morrow I will hear you in confession."
He remained silent for a moment, then drawing a paper out of his pocket, he continued:
"Late last night, after having wished you good night, the postman, who had been delayed by the snow, brought me a very distressing letter. The senior vicaire informs me that my book has been a source of grief to Monseigneur, and has already overshadowed the spiritual joy with which he looked forward to the festival of our Lady of Mount Carmel. The work, he adds, is full of foolhardy doctrines and opinions which have already been condemned by the authorities. His Grace could not approve of such unwholesome lucubrations. This, then, is what they write to me. But I will relate your story to Monseigneur. It will prove to him that Lilith exists and that I do not dream."